An  Old  Japanese  Foot  Measure 


by 

BENJAMIN  SMITH  LYMAN. 


PHILADELPHIA, 


0 


(Extract  from  the  Proceedings  of  The  Numismatic  and  Antiquarian  Society  of 
Philadelphia,  for  1887-89.) 


AN  OLD  JAPANESE  STANDARD  FOOT  MEASURE. 

(Read  May  2d,  1889.) 

On  the  fourth  of  April,  1873,  at  the  Treasury  Department  of  the 
Japanese  government,  an  old  standard  measure  of  length,  called  the 
Tsuchimikadoshaku,  also  more  vulgarly  called  the  Tesshaku,  or  iron 
foot,  was  shown  to  me.  It  was  a bar  of  iron  about  half  an  inch,  or 
five-eighths,  thick  and  sixteen  inches  long  and  two  inches  and  a quarter 
wide,  but  hollowed  out  into  the  shape  of  a narrow  link,  widened  a 
little  for  about  three  inches  at  one  end  and  five-eighths  of  an  inch  at 
the  other  end,  as  shown  by  the  accompanying  drawing  roughly  copied 
from  it.  The  bar  contains  three  standards  of  length,  measured  be- 
tween certain  interior  angles  of  the  link. 

It  is  another  of  the  numerous  cases  where  an  opposite  method  is 
adopted  in  the  extreme  East  to  what  a European  or  American  would 
consider  the  most  natural  one  : — instead  of  using  a simple  bar  as  a 
standard,  the  space  inside  the  hollow  of  a link  is  taken.  Although  we 
are  apt  thoughtlessly  to  condemn  the  ways  of  others  as  ridiculous  and 
less  practical  or  advantageous  than  our  own,  it  often  happens  that  the 
Oriental  method,  if  the  choice  be  not  wholly  a matter  of  indifference 
or  of  chance,  is  in  reality  more  rational  and  better  suited  to  the  cir- 
cumstances of  Eastern  countries.  In  the  present  instance,  the  method 
chosen  is  not  without  some  arguments  in  its  favor.  A simple  bar  as  a 
standard  of  length  is  subject  to  change  from  the  wearing  off  of  its 
ends,  especially  at  the  corners,  either  in  use  or  in  the  rubbing  to  which 
it  may  be  exposed  in  the  course  of  centuries,  even  if  it  be,  with  addi- 
tional complication,  ordinarily  preserved  in  an  outer  protecting  case. 
On  the  other  hand,  a standard  length  taken  between  the  inner  angles 
of  a link  can  with  moderate  care,  never  become  shortened  in  time, 
and  is  little  liable  to  any  alteration  either  from  legitimate  use  or  from 
accidental  wear.  The  iron  link  is  itself  a strong  and  inseparable  pro- 
tector around  the  standard.  The  weight  of  the  arguments  for  invaria- 
bleness, security,  simplicity,  and  practicalness  seems  then,  after  all,  to 
be  on  the  side  of  the  Orientals  in  this  case. 

As  shown  by  an  inscription  on  the  bar,  or  link,  it  dates  back  to  the 
year  1047  of  our  era.  The  inscription  says: — “ Human  king,  seven- 

68 


69 


Plate  4. 


7o 


tieth  reign,  Tegai,  Eishoo  second  year  first  month  — day.”  Tegai  is  the 
name  of  the  year  according  to  the  sixty-year  cycle,  and  Eishoo,  mean- 
ing endless  reign,  is  the  name  of  the  first  period  in  the  reign  of  the 
Japanese  ruler  Goreizei.  The  bar  is  said  to  have  been  brought  at  that 
time  from  China  to  serve  as  a standard  of  measures  ; but  as  it  goes  by 
the  name  of  Tsuchimikado,  the  Japanese  ruler  from  A.  D.  1199  to 
1231,  it  was  probably  not  legalized  or  enforced  as  a standard  until  150 
years  after  it  had  arrived  in  Japan.  Or  possibly  Tsuchimikado,  the 
name  of  a noble  family,  may  have  been  the  name  of  the  ambassador 
who  brought  the  bar  from  China. 

It  is  said  that  the  length,  on  the  face  that  bears  the  inscription,  from 
the  inner  angle  of  the  link  at  the  longer  widening,  but  at  the  corner 
furthest  from  the  inscription,  to  the  nearest  corner  of  the  shorter  wid- 
ening is  the  standard  for  the  “great  measure  of  T’ang,”  the  country 
and  dynasty  that  ruled  in  China  from  A.  D.  620  to  907.  The  stand- 
ard for  the  “small  measure  of  T’ang,”  is  upon  the  other  face  of  the 
bar,  and  is  the  distance  from  one  extreme  angle  of  the  shorter  widen- 
ing of  the  link  to  the  nearest  corner  of  the  larger  widening.  The 
“whale  foot,”  as  it  is  called  in  Japan,  is  the  full  length  of  the  link  on 
the  same  face  of  the  bar  from  the  other  extreme  inner  angle  of  the 
shorter  widening  to  the  furthest  angle  on  the  same  side  of  the  link. 

The  shorter  or  small  measure  of  T’ang  is  about  one-sixteenth  of  an 
inch  shorter  than  the  English  or  American  foot  and  is  the  same  as  the 
ordinary  foot  of  Japan  at  the  present  day,  except  that  for  the  past  165 
years  the  length  of  the  common  foot  measure  has  been  regulated  by 
another  standard  called  the  Kiyoohooshaku,  which,  according  to  a 
brass  copy  of  it  in  the  Japanese  Treasury  Department,  is,  it  is  said, 
about  a thousandth  of  a foot  shorter  than  the  Tsuchimikado  standard. 
The  Kiyoohooshaku  is  said  to  be  probably  like  the  present  bar,  in  form 
and  material,  and  was  established  as  a standard  by  the  Shoogun  Yoshi- 
mune  (1716-1745)  from  some  measure  in  the  Kumano  temple  at  Hon- 
guu  (or  possibly  Shinguu)  village  in  the  province  Kii,  some  60  miles 
south  of  Osaka.  Kiyoohoo  is  the  name  of  the  period  A.  D.  1716- 
1 7 3 5 . Still  another  standard  of  the  common  foot  measure,  called  the 
Matashiro  standard,  is  kept  at  the  Osaka  mint ; but  according  to  a 
brass  copy  of  it  in  the  Treasury  Department,  is,  it  is  said,  about  four- 
thousandths  of  a foot  shorter  than  the  Kiyoohooshaku.  Within  the 
last  few  years  the  mean  of  these  two  standards  has  been  adopted  for 
the  foot.  The  common  foot  of  Japan  is  called  kanejaku,  or  the  foot 
of  the  carpenters’  square,  which  is  called  magarikane  (bent  metal),  or 
more  shortly  kane  (metal.) 


7i 


The  “ great  measure  of  T’ang  ” is  one-fifth  longer  than  the  small  one, 
or  the  common  foot,  kanejaku  ; and  appears  to  have  been  used  for 
measuring  land,  and  is  also  the  Japanese  gofukujaku  for  cloth  measur- 
ing, but  is  no  longer  used  in  Japan.  The  whale  foot,  or  kujirajaku, 
is  one-quarter  longer  than  the  common  foot,  or  kanejaku,  and  is  now 
used  in  Japan  for  measuring  cloth.  The  name  is  said  to  be  given  be- 
cause the  measure  is  often  made  of  bone  from  a whale’s  fin  ; and  not, 
therefore,  because  of  the  extreme  size  of  the  measure. 

The  measures  of  T’ang  appear  to  have  been  introduced  into  Japan 
in  consequence  of  intercourse  between  the  countries  that  became  fre- 
quent about  the  beginning  of  our  seventh  century,  and  to  have  been 
established  by  law  about  A.  D.  713,  just  at  the  beginning  of  the  strictly 
historical  period,  displacing  a Corean  foot  that  is  said  to  have  long 
been  in  use  and  to  have  been  about  one-fifth  longer  than  the  kanejaku  ; 
and  before  that,  spans  and  hand-breadths  are  said  to  have  been  used. 
(See  Gakugei  Shirin,  vol.'IV,  p.  220.)  In  A.  D.  713,  717,  and  720 
laws  are  by  the  same  authority  said  to  have  been  made  in  regard  to 
weights  and  measures,  based  on  those  of  T’ang  ; and  standard  measures 
and  weights  to  have  been  distributed  to  the  provinces.  It  is  clear  that 
even  in  those  days,  the  Japanese  with  their  remarkable  appreciation 
and  docility,  were  ready  and  eager  to  adopt  from  the  most  enlightened 
foreign  countries  the  results  of  the  best  civilization  known  to  them. 

Indeed,  it  may  well  be  questioned  whether  better  enlightenment 
could  have  been  found  anywhere  in  the  world  at  that  time  than  in 
China.  In  the  matter  of  standard  measures, — and  perhaps  there 
is  no  better  single  test  of  the  enlightenment  of  a country  than  the 
precision  and  uniformity  of  its  measures  and  weights, — the  foot  measure 
of  the  T’ang  dynasty,  and  presumably  the  one  already  long  used  in  the 
country  T’ang,  was  far  from  new,  and  is  in  fact  claimed  to  be  the 
same  as  the  one  established  by  the  Shang  dynasty,  some  3000  or  3500 
years  ago  (B.  C.  1766-1122).  The  Shang  foot  is  said  (Wakansan- 
saidzue,  vol.  24,  p.  2)  to  be  just  one-fourth  longer  than  the  foot  of  the 
previous  Hia  dynasty,  the  first  thoroughly  historical  dynasty,  about 
four  thousand  years  ago  (B.  C.  2205-1766)  ; and  from  that  time  to  the 
present  the  Chinese  foot  has  always  been  divided  into  tenths  and  hun- 
dredths, a decimal  division  of  measures  that  does  not  even  now  date 
back  a hundred  years  in  any  part  of  Europe,  though  our  decimal  arith- 
metical notation  has  been  a special  European,  but  not  Chinese,  ar- 
gument in  its  favor  for  nearly  a thousand  years.  In  the  more  or  less 
fabulous  period  before  the  Hia  dynasty  the  foot  is  said  to  have  had  the 
same  length  as  the  Hia  foot,  but  to  have  been  divided  into  ninths  and 


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eighty-firsts,  as  far  back  as  Hwangti,  4500  years  ago  (B.  C.  2697-2597). 
It  is  claimed  that  by  his  command  his  musician  Ling  Lun  made  the 
first  standard  of  length  from  a joint  of  bamboo  that  when  used  as 
a pitch  pipe  gave  forth  a certain  note.  The  contents  of  the  pipe  also 
served  as  the  base  of  measures  of  capacity,  and  so  too  of  weights. 
The  idea  of  taking  a pitch  pipe  as  a standard  of  measure  may  seem 
fanciful  and  more  poetical  than  practical,  but  certainly  compares  fa- 
vorably with  the  origin  of  our  own  standard  measures,  the  length  of 
the  king’s  arm  about  800  years  ago.  It  bears  some  resemblance,  more- 
over, to  the  very  modern  project  of  taking  for  a standard  the  length 
of  a wave  of  light  of  a certain  color. 

It  is  reasonable  to  suppose  that  a people  whose  government  was  so- 
licitous about  a uniformity  of  weights  and  measures  should  be  in  other 
respects  somewhat  advanced  in  civilization.  We  find,  indeed,  that  in 
the  peaceableness  and  justice  of  the  government,  in  the  freedom  of  the 
people  from  government  oppression  while  pursuing  happiness,  in  the 
safety  of  property  and  life,  in  the  orderliness  and  decorum  of  the  av- 
erage behavior  of  the  public,  in  the  loftiness  of  moral  ideas,  purity 
of  religion,  freedom  from  degrading  superstitions,  morality  of  the 
priesthood,  literary  and  artistic  taste  and  skill,  industry,  agriculture, 
commercial  integrity  and  enterprise,  bodily  comfort,  in  every  one  of 
these  important  things  the  Japan  of  1047,  the  epoch  of  this  standard 
foot  measure,  was  at  least  on  a par  with  the  Europe  of  the  same  time 
and  in  many  of  them  decidedly  more  advanced.  For  that  was  the 
moment  when  Europe  was  more  deeply  sunken  than  at  any  other  in 
the  ignorance,  superstitions,  vice,  lawlessness,  rudeness,  and  poverty  of 
the  Dark  Ages.  Indeed,  if  we  should  go  much  further  back  in  China 
and  compare  its  condition  in  all  those  respects  with  Europe  we  should 
constantly  find  the  comparison  highly  favorable  to  the  Orientals. 

We  must  remember  that  the  time  of  our  foot  measure  just  preceded 
the  Norman  conquest  of  England,  when  the  Roman  Church  was  at  a 
low  stage  of  corruption ; the  very  Pope,  Benedict  IX,  after  being 
twice  driven  from  the  throne  for  scandalous  conduct,  had  just  been 
deposed  for  simony  ; all  parts  of  Europe  had  long  been  almost  con- 
stantly in  a state  of  war;  Henry  III,  Emperor  of  Germany,  had  just 
defeated  the  Bohemians  and  Hungarians,  and  claimed  the  right  of 
nominating  the  Popes  ; Henry  I,  the  weak  ruler  of  France,  was  aided 
at  first  against  his  rebellious  vassals  by  Robert  the  Devil,  Duke  of  Nor- 
mandy, and  opposed  by  him  later,  and  the  kingdom  was  afflicted  by 
many  private  wars  and  by  a dreadful  famine ; England  was  ruled  by 
“ the  good  King  Edward,”  the  Confessor,  but  also  torn  by  many  dis- 


73 


sensions  ; the  usurper  Macbeth  was  holding  Scotland  in  spite  of  Ed- 
ward’s aid  to  Malcolm  ; in  addition  to  the  national  and  provincial 
wars,  Europe  was  in  a state  of  almost  incessant  private  warfare  ; every- 
where outside  the  protection  of  the  Church  “ the  strong  hand  was  the 
only  law;”  chivalry  was  but  just  beginning  its  beneficent  civilizing 
career,  later  to  be  improved  by  the  intercourse  with  Asia  that  the  Cru- 
sades gave  rise  to  ; in  science  and  literature,  according  to  competent 
critics,  there  had  been  for  five  hundred  years  only  two  men  of  real 
importance  and  originality  ; very  few  laymen,  of  any  rank,  could  sign 
their  own  names,  and  the  clergy  were  as  a body  little  better  educated  ; 
all  Europe  was  beridden  by  the  grossest  superstitions,  such  as  judi- 
cial ordeal  and  trial  by  combat ; the  vernacular  languages  of  Southern 
Europe  had  scarcely  been  reduced  to  writing  ; expensive  parchment  was 
practically  the  only  material  to  write  on,  and  books  were  very  rare ; of 
the  fine  arts,  ecclesiastical  architecture  was  almost  the  only  one  in  ex- 
istence and  the  magnificent  churches  of  the  later  Middle  Ages  were 
barely  beginning  to  be  built ; successful  commerce  had  but  lately  been 
established  at  Venice,  Genoa,  Dublin  and  on  the  Baltic ; manufac- 
tures hardly  existed  at  all,  and  merchandise  could  not  be  carried  from 
place  to  place  without  great  risk  of  robbery  and  certainty  of  subjection 
to  extortionate  tolls  ; the  state  of  agriculture  was  very  low  indeed, 
with  an  almost  inconceivably  small  extent  of  cultivated  land,  little  fer- 
tilizing, and  scanty  crops ; the  morals  of  the  wealthier  part  of  society 
had  become  extremely  dissolute,  and  the  very  numerous  monks  them- 
selves were  in  general  notoriously  licentious ; judicial  perjury  was 
prevalent ; English  parents  sold  their  own  children  as  slaves ; bodily 
comfort  was  very  inferior,  especially  among  the  richer  classes,  to  what 
it  is  now,  and  elegance  of  dwellings  or  furniture  or  clothing  was  almost 
unknown  ; houses  had  no  chimneys  nor  glazed  windows,  and  carpets, 
glasses,  plate,  chairs  and  even  bedsteads  were  rare  for  centuries  later ; 
after  two  hundred  years  of  improvement,  as  late  as  the  thirteenth  cen- 
tury, in  Italy,  perhaps  the  most  civilized  European  country,  it  is  re- 
corded that  “ manners  were  rude  ; a man  and  wife  ate  off  the  same 
plate  ; there  were  no  wooden  handled  knives,  nor  more  than  one  or 
two  drinking  cups  in  the  house,  candles  of  wax  or  tallow  were  unknown  : 
a servant  held  a torch  during  supper  ; the  clothes  of  the  men  were  of 
leather  unlined.” 

Nevertheless,  it  is  obvious  that  in  regard  to  all  such  points,  except 
perhaps  the  moral  ones,  Europe  is  now  greatly  in  advance  of  the  Far 
East ; and  at  an  earlier  period,  too,  during  the  best  times  of  ancient 
Greece  and  Rome,  the  highest  civilization  of  those  countries  seems  to 


74 


have  been  decidedly  superior  in  many  respects  to  the  contemporaneous 
condition  of  China.  We  are  led  then,  very  naturally,  to  inquire  why 
progress  should  have  been  so  much  more  rapid  in  Europe  during  the 
past  800  years,  and  especially  the  last  400,  as  to  cause  the  Orientals  to 
be  outstripped ; and  on  the  other  hand  why  Europe  should  have  fallen 
behind  the  East  during  the  earlier  part  of  the  Middle  Ages,  so  that  China 
and  even  Japan  in  their  more  equable  progress  appear  to  have  a great 
advantage  at  the  time  of  our  old  standard  foot  measure. 

The  real  secret  of  these  striking  differences  between  the  East  and  the 
West  at  different  periods  seems  to  be  that  in  the  East  the  refinement  of 
feelings,  the  gradual  improvement  of  notions  as  to  what  is  becoming 
and  decorous  behavior  and  conduct  of  life,  that  is,  morality  from  the 
point  of  view  of  what  looks  well  or  has  a pleasing  outward  appearance, 
is  predominant  as  the  foundation  of  civilization,  rather  than  the  by  no 
means  wholly  wanting  intellectual  or  logical  cultivation,  that  in  Europe 
has  been  at  the  base  of  the  highest  enlightenment  of  both  ancient  and 
modern  times;  though  there  not  disunited  from  some  degree  of  moral 
elevation,  particularly  through  sensitiveness  of  conscience,  an  intro- 
spective comparison  of  one’s  own  acts  with  what  is  known  or  felt  to  be 
true  and  right,  a view  never  thought  of  in  the  Far  East.  Of  course,  a 
certain  amount  of  morality,  of  orderliness  of  behavior  between  men 
and  of  peace  between  nations,  induced  either  by  common  instinct,  or 
by  superstition,  or  by  religion,  or  by  reason,  or  by  a combination  of  two 
or  more  of  these  guides,  is  a necessary  condition  for  the  progress  of 
intellectual  enlightenment.  In  addition,  however,  a special  bodily 
temperament,  somewhat  inclined  to  reflection,  is  particularly  favorable 
to  the  exercise  and  unfolding  of  the  reasoning  powers. 

That  thoughtful  temperament  seems  to  have  prevailed  in  ancient 
Greece  to  a higher  degree  than  in  Eastern  Asia,  and  to  have  led  more 
or  less  directly  to  the  Grecian  preeminence  in  enlightenment,  which 
was  copied  by  the  rather  less  reflecting,  more  volatile  Romans.  When 
the  state  of  morals  became  low  through  the  blunting  of  the  natural  in- 
stincts by  luxury  and  through  an  enlightened  loss  of  active  faith  in  the 
ancient  superstitions  and  religion,  the  Roman  Empire  fell  gradually 
into  disorder  both  in  its  national  and  private  relations  and  became 
powerless  before  the  rude  northern  invaders,  who  intensified  its  grow- 
ing barbarism. 

The  new  religion,  Christianity,  was  not  directly  favorable  to  intel- 
lectual cultivation  and  enlightenment,  nor  did  it  specially  desire  to  be 
so ; though,  on  the  other  hand,  it  did  not  at  first  aim  directly  to 
oppose  them.  Its  chief  purpose  was  to  rectify  men’s  morality  by  per- 


75 


suading  them  with  a new  incentive  to  virtue ; and  thereby  it  prepared 
the  way  for  a subsequent  revival  of  learning  and  of  intellectual  re- 
finement. The  influence  of  the  Church  was,  to  be  sure,  not  in 
theory  or  by  deliberate  intention  directly  opposed  to  intellectual 
progress,  but  for  several  reasons  had  practically  that  tendency.  For 
the  early  Christians  disliked  and  despised  or  distrusted  pagan  and  sec- 
ular learning  and  were  perhaps,  owing  to  persecutions,  shut  out  from 
many  of  the  ordinary  facilities  for  acquiring  it.  St.  Jerome,  the  most 
learned  of  the  Latin  Fathers,  thought  the  study  of  secular  books  rep- 
rehensible ; and  a church  council  of  his  time  (A.  D.  398)  forbade  the 
reading  of  them.  Many  bishops,  even,  were  totally  illiterate.  Then, 
too,  it  was  perceived  that  the  power  and  influence  of  the  priesthood, 
when  once  they  had  become  established,  were  more  or  less  endangered 
by  physical  science  through  the  weakening  of  faith  in  what  were  con- 
sidered essential  truths  of  direct  revelation  and  the  very  bulwarks  of 
the  Church  ; and  consequently  every  step  of  scientific  progress  has 
always  been  stoutly  opposed  by  many  of  the  clergy,  down  even  to  our 
own  days,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  it  has  afterwards  invariably  come  to  be 
universally  admitted  that  no  such  step  has  really  been  in  any  degree  sub- 
versive of  morality  or  opposed  to  the  ultimate  welfare  of  the  human  race. 

The  Gothic  and  other  Teutonic  northern  invaders  had  never  over- 
come the  obstacles  of  their  northern  climate  so  far  as  to  reach  any 
high  degree  of  civilization  and  were  still  rude  barbarians.  But  they 
appear  to  have  always  had  the  reflective  temperament  and  to  have  in- 
fused something  of  their  own  nature  into  the  more  southern  and  west- 
ern countries  ; so  that,  when  manners  had  become  softened  and  regu- 
lated by  the  new  religion,  the  progress  of  enlightenment  by  cultivation 
of  the  intellect,  of  the  logical  or  reasoning  faculty,  was  again  taken 
up,  and,  though  almost  imperceptible  at  first  and  very  slow  for  a long 
time,  went  on  at  length  with  increasing  speed  in  spite  of  every  op- 
posing hindrance. 

Until  the  latter  part  of  the  eleventh  century,  about  the  time  of  our 
foot  measure,  the  decline  of  enlightenment  had  been  almost  constant 
for  at  least  six  centuries,  until  the  lowest  point  of  the  Dark  Ages  was 
reached,  and  the  Far  East  was  then  more  civilized  and  enlightened  than 
Europe.  Since  that  time,  a great  improvement  has  been  effected  in 
Europe,  but  so  little  in  the  East,  that  its  condition  seems  by  comparison 
almost  stationary.  Nevertheless,  there  is  doubtless  some  advance  there, 
notwithstanding  temporary  fluctuations;  though  it  has  been  said  : — 


“ Better  fifty  years  of  Europe  than  a cycle  of  Cathay.” 


76 


The  reason  why  Oriental  progress  in  enlightenment  has  not  been 
more  rapid  seems  clearly  to  be  found  in  the  temperament  of  the  East- 
ern races.  As  they  are  not  greatly  inclined  to  reflection,  to  reasoning, 
they  do  not  so  often  as  others  elaborate  great  original  ideas  that  are  both 
the  result  of  progress  and  the  means  of  still  better  attainment  and  of 
accelerated  advance.  That  kind  of  temperament  or  character  of  mind 
does  not  however  belong  in  equal  degree  to  all  the  races  of  Eastern 
Asia  and  pertains  to  the  Japanese  still  more  than  to  the  Chinese.  It 
carries  with  it  the  teachable  appreciation  that  makes  a people  ready  to 
adopt  from  others  the  important  ideas  it  is  unable  or  indisposed  to 
work  out  for  itself.  The  character  in  question  is  also  particularly 
amenable  to  moral  laws  and  civilizing  influences. 

The  interchange  between  the  two  sets  of  races,  then,  is  not  unequal. 
The  reflective  ones  can  themselves  reason  out  most  valuable  truths  and 
far-reaching  principles,  but  can  profit  immensely  by  the  others’  ines- 
timable delicacy  and  highly  refined  perception. 


